บท 21: Budapest
-Stark Mansion, Los Angeles, California-
-January 27, 2007, 1600h local-
"So, that's it?" Naruto asked after signing the contract. He took Morgan from Pepper's arm and proceeded to make weird faces to make her laugh.
"Yup, I have two days to find someone to manage the whole thing." Tony said while checking over the papers and handing it over to his Pepper to have a read through.
"Is this thing, right?" Pepper asked, disbelief evident in her voice.
"Which part?" Naruto asked for clarification, his attention divided between her and playing with Morgan.
"Most of it..." Pepper said, still rifling through the contract. She took the company information page and placed it on the table. "Like here. It says that you have 2513 branches already with another 57 on the way."
"I don't really know the numbers, but that seems about right." Naruto answered, now playing with Morgan using a unicorn puppet. Tony and Pepper never saw him pull it out, but they just let it slide. If they question everything they saw Naruto do, they'll rapidly go insane.
"And it says here you have a branch in Pyongyang. How the fu... heck did you manage that?" Pepper corrected herself since they have a no cursing policy in front of Morgan.
"There's this guy with glasses that really loved my recipe. He tried to force it out of me, but he eventually gave up and agreed to place a branch there. I think his name is Kim Jong something. I just can't seem to remember." Naruto answered again but now with Morgan wearing a pink fairy princess outfit.
Tony and Pepper are gobsmacked that Naruto possibly served food to the North Korean leader, probably got tortured for it, and still got what he wanted.
Pepper is now afraid to remove her sight on Naruto and Morgan due to the genuine possibility of another toy or dress Naruto would pull out of nowhere and give to Morgan.
"You still want to be in control of hiring of branch managers and them in control of hiring employees? Cause that's still a lot off work." Tony asked Naruto to keep his girlfriend's sanity in place.
"Yup!" is Naruto's only answer. Control of hiring of branch manager means that he can still place his clones to that position keeping each branch a safe house of his.
Naruto stiffened so suddenly that even Tony and Pepper saw it. He immediately placed Morgan on Pepper's arms and said,
"I gotta go. I'll see you guys in two or three days..." Naruto ran out of the dining room but peeked again before leaving. "Have fun with that." He said, pointing to the pile of toys near his sit. The two then heard the front door slam shut.
Pepper stood up and faced Tony and said,
"You clean that up since you brought him here. I'm going to change Morgan."
Pepper exited the room with Morgan, but before she could get up the stairs, she saw Rhodey walking inside the house.
"Hi, Morgan! Nice dress..." Rhody greeted Morgan first before facing Pepper. "Hey, Pepper! You see where Tony is?"
"He's in the dining room. Help him first before doing anything else." Pepper ordered before walking up the stairs.
Rhodey just shrugged at Pepper's mood and walked towards the dining room. The moment he stepped inside, he saw the pile of toys.
"What the hell happened here?" Rhodey asked.
"Naruto decided to sell a piece of his company to me." Tony answered plainly without further elaborating.
"So, Naruto finally decided to show up?"
"Yup. So what do you need?" Tony asked while picking up toys.
Rhodey decided to help him out before answering.
"You got anything that could knock out a herd of elephants from a distance?" Rhodey asked, remembering the specifications the army gave him to ask.
"I might have some sonic cannons in production."
-Budapest, Hungary-
-January 28, 2007, 0130h local-
"Nat! Nat! Come in!" Barton shouted through his comms. His team of five is being peppered by gunfire from almost all directions. Two of them are already injured enough to keep them from fighting.
Clint had already exhausted his shafts and arrowheads. He's currently using an AK-47 from a guy he killed earlier.
They're exhausted and stressed out. They have been trapped for a while, and long-range communication looks to be jammed. Their only hope is that Homebase notices their lack of communication. The worst part of all, Natasha has been incommunicado almost from the time she split up at the start of the mission.
"How the hell did it go all FUBAR?" Clint asked himself while returning fire.
-Flashback Start-
"Boss really wants this to go smoothly, doesn't he?" Natasha said.
"Yup, apparently weapons of mass destruction falling to an unhinged general's hand is a bad thing. Who knew?" Clint answered sarcastically.
The moment the package from the not so mysterious broker appeared in SHIELD detailing an Iranian General buying plutonium, Fury already made up his mind on buying the information. Contrary to popular belief, the WMD the plutonium is going to be used for is not for a conventional nuclear bomb that just goes boom. It's for a weapon that aims to spread nuclear material over a large area. An extreme form of razed earth tactic, it will immediately make an area inhabitable for at least 100 years.
When they got the details of the exchange, Fury took no chance and sent an overkill ten-man team, which includes Hawkeye and the Black Widow. The team would take a jet to Hungary, and a group of 6 would disembark. Four would be left in the plane for backup, and this includes the pilot.
As soon as they arrived in Budapest, they surveyed the area and created a plan of attack. Clint would be overwatch, scanning the area for hostiles and unexpected occurrences. Natasha would be the infiltrator, getting as close as possible without alerting the buyer and seller. The rest of the ground troops would be on standby some distance away. There's no time to create cover identities, and besides, it would be no use. The transaction would happen beneath a bridge by the eastside of the river at midnight. They would probably remove any bystanders to keep any witnesses to a minimum.
Everybody is in position by 10 pm. The ground team is 50 meters away inside an inconspicuous van parked near the bridge. Nat went above the railings underneath the bridge and went dark to minimize complications. Clint positioned himself at a building 200 m away with a view of the north side of the bridge.
By 11:30, two SUV's came and with four armed men each. They moved away all the vagrants in the area. They went on high alert in preparation for what's to come. At the stroke of midnight, six more cars arrived, three from each side of the bridge. Six guards came down from each side and created a perimeter. All of them are armed with HK 416 rifles. The guards sure mean business.
Clint already identified the General, but he still can't see the seller. He needs him to move forward a bit or needs to go to a lower floor. Deciding that going down was his best bet, he collected his items and prepared to move. But before he could leave, he saw a semi-truck rush down the street perpendicular to the bridge heading straight towards the van with the rest of his team. He rapidly prepared an arrow shot with an explosive tip and aimed it to the truck. But before he could launch it, bullets hitting his general area forced him to take cover.
"We're compromised! Bug out! Charlie team, hostile on your way." Clint shouted to his comms.
He saw the van drove away but not before getting targeted by .50 caliber machine guns mounted to the side of the truck.
Clint decided that he would be no help to his teammates if he didn't take out the hostiles aiming at him. He peaked over the ledge and saw four guys across the river, firing at him. That's particularly impressive since it's almost 700m away from him. He returned fire using his explosive tipped arrow.
Clint saw that he effectively eliminated the enemy and decided to help the ground team who is still getting targeted by the truck. He fired multiple arrow types, including incendiary, explosive, and emp, but nothing seems to be working. Even diamond-tipped arrowheads didn't penetrate the tires.
"Get to extract point alpha. I'll find a way to get there myself." Clint ordered the ground crew hoping they will lose the truck along the way.
He took one last look at the meetup site and saw everybody was gone. Natasha must've improvised or compromised for her not to radio in. The latter of which is the worst case possible.
Clint rappelled down the side street using a rappel line arrow tip. On the alleyway, he quickly rode the Kawasaki KLX450R he placed for an emergency. He rode hard and fast towards the extract point while only using the side roads and alleyways to minimize possible contact.
When Clint got to an industrial park at the outskirt of the city serving as their extract point, he saw the truck pinning his man down inside the warehouse. He also saw two teams trying to get around the warehouse and flank them. He quickly formulated a plan in his mind and determined that he needs to take out the truck if they want to have any chance of surviving the encounter. He slapped the rest of his explosive and incendiary tips to his bike and revved it hard towards the container at the back of the truck.
The result was simply amazing. The truck went out in a massive blaze killing everyone inside. Clint runs towards his team while shooting at the flanking teams. He was about to kill the last member of the left flanking team when he reached out to his quiver and felt no more shafts. He hanged his bow around his body and slide toward the nearest gun and quickly fired at the enemy.
"How are you guys?" Clint asked his team when he finally reached them.
"Not looking good, sir. Robertson and Dechile are out, sir. We've called for the bird, but we can't seem to get through." A member of his team, Murtaugh, reported while the other, Esposito, one triages the down members.
Barton was formulating an evacuation plan when four more vans came. Multiple hostiles dismounted from each of them, making the situation direr.
"Fuck! We can't leave now..." Clint said to himself. He faced his teammates and said, "We need to make a stand here. Hopefully, the bird would come and check out the situation when they don't receive further contact."
-Flashback End-
"Shit! When would these motherfuckers run out of men!" Clint exclaimed while reloading.
He saw Esposito clipped at his shoulder by a bullet causing him to fall down. Murtaugh tried to help him up, but a shot got through the barrier and hit him near his kidney.
Clint effectively became the last man standing when suddenly the gunfire stopped. He took a peek and saw a Harley drive down in front of the vans. Riding on top of it is a long-haired, masked man. The most significant characteristic of his is what looks like a left-arm made up entirely of metal with a red star near the shoulder.
Clint immediately knew who this was. Natasha had been warning him about this boogeyman for quite some time. The Winter Soldier. The assassin who would not stop, and it looks like they're his next target. He immediately took a shot straight to The Winter Soldier's face, but his metal arm quickly stopped it. Before he could fire another shot, The Winter Soldier took a grenade launcher and fired it at his direction.
-Budapest, Hungary-
-January 28, 2007, 0100h local-
Natasha woke up slowly, her vision still blurry. She shook her head to get rid of some of the cobwebs in her mind.
She tried to move, but that immediately proved futile. Her hands, legs, and torso are all bound with leather straps and duct tape. Looking around, she saw that she is in an underground cell. Everything is made of cement except for the heavy looking red door. She tried to find a way to get out of her predicament, but it looks like faith had other plans.
The door opened, revealing eight armed guards who immediately surrounded her while keeping 2m of distance away from her. It looks like her captors have some brains. When all the guards are positioned, an old balding Caucasian man with glasses walked in. A guard placed a chair a meter away from her in which the man sat down.
"I'm sorry for the restraints, Ms. Romanoff. But I'm sure you understand..." The man said with a gentlemanly tone. Natasha remained silent. "How rude of me. I'm Octavian Bloom..." Still seeing no visible reaction from the Black Widow, He continued. "The organization I represent was forced to ask you some questions since you might be able to shed some light on a mystery we found ourselves in."
Natasha is piecing together the clues the man is showing. The 'group' he's with must be rich and powerful to be able to kill the original seller of the plutonium and impersonate him in front of the general all just to ambush them. There might also be a leak inside SHIELD, and a high clearance one at that, since the source of information came from Naruto. The chance of this group working with or buying information from Naruto is practically zero since there is no indication of him working with illegal or terrorist groups.
"You see, we are a little envious of some good fortune that fell on your hands..." Bloom said with a shake of his head. "We heard you are being given high-quality information for virtually nothing. This 'Nine-Tails' is growing to be a big thorn on our side, and I have it on good authority that you might have an idea who it is."
That sealed the deal for Natasha. These guys are looking for Naruto, hoping to get rid of him.
Bloom signaled a guard to do something. The guard walked out and promptly returned, carrying a tablet and giving it to Bloom.
He then scrolled with the tablet a bit before showing it to Natasha. She saw Clint and his team pinned down.
"I can make sure they leave out of there alive and return to your precious SHIELD..." Natasha remained quiet. "Who would you choose? A man you almost know nothing about or your friend and partner?"
Seeing that further 'incentives' are required, Bloom scrolled at the tablet again and showed it to Natasha, and for the first time, a reaction was observed on her.
"Oh, you remembered him, didn't you—the culmination of everything we have—the Winter Soldier. Quite an effective killer he is. What do you think would happen if he targeted Agent Barton."
Against everything she wanted to do, Natasha still kept her mouth shut. Death would come sooner or later for them all, and she accepted that fact for a long time. She would jeopardize one of the largest asset the world ever had against all that goes bump in the night for the chance for all them to live.
"I see..." Bloom removed his glasses and wiped it before placing it back again. "It's such a shame I can't change your mind..." He retrieved a capped 5cc syringe from his pocket and showed it to her. "This is another one of our innovations. The best truth serum ever produced. Only 1cc is needed to have someone to tell their darkest, deepest secret..." Bloom saw Natasha's stare on the syringe. "You noticed it didn't you. I have 5cc here to make sure you would talk since you have some resistance against drugs. Too bad you would die within ten minutes, but what can you do?"
Bloom removed the cap of the syringe and stabbed it in Natasha's thigh. Natasha took a deep breath and prepared herself to bute her tongue off the moment the plunger is pressed. But before Bloom can push the plunger down, an explosion reverberated through the room.
"What was that!?" Bloom stood up and stared at the door. "You and you. Check out what's happening..." The two guards near the entrance unlocked their guns, and exited the room.
Distant gunfire and screams could be heard at the other side of the door. This startled Bloom and shouted to his guards,
"Lock the door. Prepare yourselves."
Bloom leaned his back on the far side of the room while the remaining six guards all aim towards the door.
The screams are close now. Pounding on the door and pleas for them to open it can be heard. The guards tensed up and prepared to fire.
Natasha felt fear towards whatever causes that kind of screams. It must be truly horrific to be on the other side of the door.
As fast as the chaos started, the screaming suddenly stopped. Everyone in the room could see blood rolling under the door. The guards stepped behind Natasha to create distance from the door, but this proved to be the wrong move.
The earth between Natasha and the guards are suddenly pierced with what looks like black threads. The threads pierced the torso of all the guards and ripped them apart in a shower of blood.
Natasha didn't see what happened, but based on the blood and entrails around the room, it must be a brutal kill. Bloom, on the other hand, saw everything and understandably pee, puke, and shat all at the same time due to fear and the brutality of the kill.
The door slowly creaked open, which should be impossible since it was locked from the inside, revealing body pieces on the floor. A man walked towards their view, and for the first time, they saw who is massacring everyone.
He wore a black sleeveless top, pants, arm sleeves, and sandals on top of all that are metallic flak jacket, bracers, and shin guards. The man hid his identity using a white mask with a picture of a fox.
The man looked around before staring at Natasha and walked towards her. He leaned down and moved his face in front of her. She waited for her to be ripped apart just like all the others, but what she heard next made her completely relax.
"Hey, Nat! It looks like you're in a bind." The man said to her.
Natasha recognized that voice. Racing through her memories, she finally found a match around two years ago. Steeling herself, she asked quietly,
"Naruto?"
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